Badals getting richer, Punjab poorer: Bajwa

Facing the political heat over his questionable land deals, Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday hit out at the ruling Badal family, accusing it of "capturing" real estate, liquor, cable, transport, hospitality and sand mining in Punjab.

In a statement issued here, Bajwa asked deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to share the "secret of multiplying money" with the people of Punjab, who were "turning paupers". Bajwa wondered how come the transport business of the Badal family was flourishing while the public transports like Punjab Roadways and PEPSU Road Transport Corporation were running into losses.

He said the hotels and the leisure park owned by Badals were like "money-minting machines" while the hotel and tourism industry in the state was reeling under heavy losses.

Bajwa claimed that the names of most members of the Badal family figured in the report of the Justice Kuldip Singh tribunal, which had the names of influential people who owned land in the periphery of Chandigarh.